What Marketers Can Learn from the Current Media Landscape

Last week, as part of what we lovingly entitled a “fieldtrip,” a few Pointers visited local Cleveland news station WEWS NewsChannel5 to, among other things, discuss how social media efforts affect media coverage in the post-24/7 news cycle. It was an experience not available in a textbook or lecture hall.

Meeting with Mike Waterhouse, WEWS’s Executive Producer of New Media, it was apparent that social media, online content and real time analytics has fundamentally changed their news process.

Undoubtedly, a lot of the lessons and aspects can be transferred to the still skeptical marketer on the development of content and social media marketing strategy.

It Opens the Dialogue. Quickly

Since television was invented, reporters have only been able to reach viewers through one-way communication. Now, social media allows for a dialogue between the station and its viewers, alerting Mike’s team to feedback not available to them previously.

For marketers and companies, this is one of the most obvious aspects of new media; it can be monitored and mined for feedback in almost real time.

For years, marketers were too arrogant to believe that satisfied and dissatisfied customers would contact companies through a contact form or telephone number. In the current media landscape, customers will reach out directly or indirectly in the manner most convenient to their own needs, on their own terms.

It Can Be a Resource for Content

Via Facebook and Twitter, viewers can provide WEWS with newsworthy material. In one example, the station asked Twitter followers for photos of a downtown Cleveland hotel fire, and received exclusive information and photos almost immediately.

Whereas stations used to be at the mercy of their own cameras and reporters, they can now use supplemental social media information as a timely source of photos and witness accounts.

As a marketer, you must be able to harness the social media firehose to suit your own needs.

Online Content = Real Time Data

WEWS is also paying close attention to viewer preference. Once upon a time, all stations had in terms of feedback was the Nielsen rating, and in smaller markets, all they had were viewers TV diary.

Today, social media/site tools and analytics can help WEWS with real time feedback to understand which stories are of the most interest to its audience online, which can shape the upcoming newscast or lead web story. While WEWS makes a commitment to telling all of the stories Clevelanders care about, they are able to determine which stories are most popular (and why) in their daily editorial meetings.

On the day of our visit, the story about a potentially stolen LeBron pendant received the most attention, and the station had, accordingly, decided to feature the story on its home page for an extended period of time. By using social media and analytics for its website, WEWS can be sure it is doing its job and keeping us up-to-date on the stories we want to hear.

Although social media has brought about drastic changes in the way everyone from local news channels to large corporations conduct business, we are only beginning to tap into its potential. At this stage, the key for those entering the social media world is to have a clear set of goals, a detailed social media strategy, and an open mind. It doesn’t hurt to be entertaining or creative, either.